Reuniting with Toto
by Dairene
Summary: Fanfiction based on Volume 2, Chapter 6 of Kino's Journey- "Homecoming- 'She' is Waiting For You"


From the bushes on the opposite side of the river, I jumped out while aiming at Toto with the empty revolver. I shouted, "If you don't dodge-"

As I began to speak, I suddenly felt as if someone smacked my chest hard. At the same time, Toto turned towards my direction, and I saw her right hand reaching straight towards me. That hand, for some reason, is wrapped in a white haze. It's strange- I couldn't hear anything.

In the next moment, my vision suddenly turned pitch black.

Why? I can't see anyth-

I d ed

T can't

Toto

Eh?

Then, all of a sudden, I found myself lying on a shallow stream. "Where- where am I?" I mumbled, groaning. The groan was reflexive- strangely, I felt no pain that might be expected from such a fall. Indeed, my limbs and body were unusually light.

I sat up and saw, to my surprise, that I lay in front of my old home. How, indeed, had I gotten here? The last I remembered, I was still some distance from the walls. I tried to think back- I was on the old road outside the walls, when I spotted Toto in the river.

Wait- did Toto bring me here? But why would she leave me there? Was… that even Toto?

With a deep sense of unease, I stood up, and to my surprise, my clothes were dry despite just having lain in a stream. Mystified, but pushing the mystery aside for now, I walked up to my house. After taking a deep breath, I knocked.

A moment later, the door burst open, my mother standing there as she had a thousand times before.

"Mother, I'm so sor-"

Instead of being overjoyed or angry like I'd imagined, she just looked sad. "I'd hoped- maybe- looks like something happened to you too, huh?" She took my hand. "Welcome home, my son. There will be time for explanations later."

I looked around, noticing the conspicuous absence of Toto. "Um, mom, where is Toto? Is she outside?"

"Well, yes," Mother confirmed. "She's in town with her parents right now. They'll be coming over soon, so I can tell her about your arrival then."

"Wait- but her parents are-" I furrowed my brow in confusion.

"Dead, yes," Mother replied simply. "I guess you don't know yet. That's understandable." She gestured at our dining room table. "Sit down."

Then she sat down herself, opposite me. "Well, there's no good way to put it- you're dead. And so am I. So is Toto and her parents."

I gaped in shock, trying to process everything. As I sat in stunned silence, I began to process everything that had happened, the more it began to make sense, the peculiar fashion I got here.

I still couldn't quite believe it. Toto- no, the girl I thought was Toto- must have killed me- shot me!

Finally, I asked one word, "When?"

"About… two years ago, give or take. An epidemic swept the country. Nothing could stop it- we lost almost everyone. A handful of people escaped at the beginning, but that's about it. Toto caught it first. I went just days after Toto succumbed. Seeing virtually everyone, save for the few who fled the country early on, showed up in this here afterlife, we can presume there's nothing left in our old country. We even took a census to make sure."

"So I'm in the right place after all," I mumbled, teary-eyed.

At that moment, there was a knocking at the door.

"Must be Toto," Mother remarked. "I'll ease her in." She walked over to the door and opened it.

It was Toto all right- she was older than I remember, but clearly not the girl in the stream, I recalled sheepishly. "Figures." But there was a considerable resemblance- so it wasn't entirely my fault I messed up.

And standing behind her were two cheerful-looking adults.

After a chorus of greetings, Mother told Toto, "There's someone I very much want you to meet."

"Oh?"

She gently led Toto inside, and as her eyes adjusted, her jaw dropped. "M- Master S- Schwarz!" She stood frozen for a few minutes before recovering and running at me. "Master Schwarz!"

She ran into me and threw her arms around me.

Smiling, my mother led Toto's parents discreetly into the living room, talking animatedly, and leaving us two alone.

"I'm so sorry, Toto," I cried, returning her embrace. "I was wrong! I never should have left!" I felt my weight sag as my legs gave out, and abruptly, I was kneeling next to Toto. "I'm so sorry!"

Toto tearfully kissed my cheek. "If you'd stayed, you would've died like the rest of us. At least you got the chance to pursue your dreams."

I shook my head vehemently. "There was nothing out there for me in the end! I belonged here at home, with you and Mom! I should have been with you in those last days!"

"Shhh!" Toto cooed, putting her finger to my lips and smiling sweetly. "What matters is you're here now. How- how did it happen, Master? Did it hurt?"

I summarized my pitiful journeys and told her the embarrassing tale of my demise in the stream just outside our country to a girl around Toto's age. "It- it only hurt a second, then it was over. More of a shock, really," I reassured Toto, whose face was buried in me.

"S- So, I guess y-you might not want to play water p-pistols anymore," Toto mumbled. "Since it might remind you, you know, how you-"

"No, no, no!" I asserted quickly. "It was just a foolish mistake of mine! I'm always happy to play water pistols with you!"

Toto brightened considerably and straightened up, pulling my arm. "In that case, come with me!" She pulled me toward a closet, and flung it open.

Inside were two water pistols. She handed me one of the pistols, and I smiled genuinely.

"If you don't dodge, you'll get hit! If you dodge, I'll hit you!" I shouted, and giggling like children, we took off.


End file.
